The 91-year-old Franco-Greek filmmaker presented his new feature film at the Lumière festival in Lyon. The Last Breath scheduled for release in January 2025.
« I am reaching an age where the end of life is approaching » Costa-Gavras admits. At 91, the Franco-Greek filmmaker told AFP that he was preparing for death by making what he does best: a political film. Guest of honor at the Lumière festival in Lyon, the director of Z or Confession presented his new feature film, The Last Breathwhich will be released in theaters in January 2025. Adapted from a work by Régis Debray and doctor Claude Grange, this committed film relates the philosophical debates on death between a palliative care doctor (Kad Merad) and a writer (Denis Podalydès) . The director knows that the end is not far away. « I would like this ending to be good, without pain, without drama, without permanent agony »he said, regretting that « not all means in our society exist for people (…) to have a good end ».
« Death has terrified us since we were little and we don’t want to talk about it. No, we need to talk about it and prepare! That’s why I made this film, for me », he added during the preview in front of the public and part of the team of the Last breathwho discovered it on this occasion. « I am in a kind of immense trouble” having looked death in the face “quite serenely, quite lightly »commented Denis Podalydès, comparing the film to a « extremely smooth ride ».
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Born on February 13, 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, in the Peloponnese, Konstantinos Costa Gavras left Greece due to his father’s anti-royalist activism to arrive in Paris in 1955, at the age of twenty. « I am deeply proud of the way in which I was received in France »he remembers. « For the first time, I was called sir. This has continued until today. »
The filmmaker’s eyes shone on Saturday, October 12, when he received the special prize of the Lumière festival from the hands of American director Tim Burton who praised his cinema « human, beautiful and thoughtful ». Costa-Gavras established his name at the end of the sixties with his political thrillers, Z (1969), in reaction to the colonels’ putsch in Athens, then with the confession taken from the testimony of Artur London against the communist purges in Czechoslovakia. It also addresses the themes of immigration in Eden in the West (2009), of capitalist society with Land Capital in 2012, the Greek financial crisis in Adults in the room (2019).
« It’s always hard to make a film » politics, recognizes this master of cinema, « it repels producers and also financiers ». The filmmaker explains that he owes his creative freedom to his wife Michèle Ray Gavras, « who organized our life in such a way that I could make the films I wanted to make », as well as the success of his first films. And he is convinced that « all films are political, not just mine. Yes, I am committed, but we are all committed when we make cinema! »
You always have to establish a very close relationship with an actor so that he becomes the character you want him to be.
Costa-Gavras
« For me, films are like a discussion we have with friends around a table, we drank well, we ate well, and we tell each other stories. Everyone tries to tell a story that touches them deeply », believes the director. « That’s how I try to make films. I don’t think there is any other way to do them. ».
More than a technique or an aesthetic, the one who toured for a long time with his group of friends made up in particular of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, insists on the importance of the actors. « You always have to establish a very close relationship with an actor so that he becomes the character you want him to be. », he said. « I don’t direct the actors, I collaborate with them ».
When asked if he realizes how far he has come, he says he doesn’t look back much. And already has new ideas, « especially living in a world that has changed so much, and is very challenging in many senses »he said, without revealing more.
